PRUNING. 



301 



soils usually are or become deficient in lime and the phosphates, and 

 the cheapest remedy is liberal dressing of wood ashes and bone 

 dust; or in sections where bone dust is not easily attainable, dig 

 in around the tree whole bones from the daily use of a family, or 

 procured from a slaughter-house. Potash dissolved in water and 

 applied to vegetable mould from the woods, and this dug in around 

 the tree, is also a cheap and ready way of supplying food requisite. 

 Iron filings, etc., from smith-shops is also good, and hence the im- 

 pression of some, that through it the blight was cured or prevented. 

 The fact being only that a certain element requisite to health was 

 exhausted in the soil. 



Pruning. In connection with what we have recorded under this 

 head on a previous page, we add the following, as directly applicable 

 to the pear. It is from the experience of Thomas Rivers, Esq., 

 England, one of the most successful pyramidal pear tree growers in 

 the world : 



" If root-pruned pyramidal trees are planted, it will much assist 

 them if about half the blossom buds are thinned out with sharp- 

 pointed scissors, or a penknife, just before they open ; otherwise 

 these root-pruned trees on 

 the quince stock are so full 

 of them, that the tree re- 

 ceives a check if they are 

 all allowed to expand. About 

 ten or fifteen fruit may be 

 permitted to ripen the first 

 season ; the following season 

 two or three dozen will be 

 as many as the tree ought 

 to be allowed to bring to 

 perfection, increasing the 

 number as the tree increases 

 in vigor, always remember- 

 ing that a few full-sized ami 

 well-ripened pears are to be 

 preferred to a greater num- 

 ber, inferior in size and 

 quality. 



Summer pinching in the 

 youth of the tree is the only 

 remedy, if it is not well fur- 

 nished below j and a severe 

 remedy it is, for all the 

 young shoots on the upper 

 tiers, including the leader, 

 must be pinched closely in 

 May and June till the lower 



